How to Make a Pencil

Friday, September 26th, 2008

Good thing to point out right about now. We have this glaring failure of the “marketplace” — you don’t need to inspect it very long at all, to figure out there are some heap-big problems with trying to blame this failure on the market. But nobody else can jump in and claim credit for making that pencil. Or any one of a number of things much more complicated and much more essential than that.

Something to keep in mind next time you hear about Obama, Biden, McCain or Palin breezily throw around the word “oversight.” And to be fair about it, all four of ‘em have done it. We don’t live in a country in which we can depend on our officials. The world of culturally-mandated ritually-dispensed sound-bites is far too rigid and unforgiving up at those high altitudes. We have to figure things out for ourselves.

Bill Whittle described it as The Web of Trust. Civilization is a remarkable thing, and surprisingly fragile.